[Giogio]

Ah, Prime - it's tempting, but I just don't order enough to justify the annual fee. Maybe I should have a look at the other benefits.

Now, if they offered a pay monthly option...

...You'd never know in which month you'll need it.
I'm not sure in uk but in de prime costs as much as 8 premium shippings.
I'm pretty sure that once you have it you'll find a way to buy more than 8 things in a year.
After all you can find anything there, at very good price.
I hate them for how they've messed with my account and my reviews, but, it's a practical thing to have.

Think just about the headphones, just as an example (because you can actually buy much more there). You could buy and send back as many as you want till you find the perfect for you.
And trust me, it can become addictive. You could find yourself at 40 before you can count till 8.

 

[ravdo]

 
And why on earth should it be called 100ABN instead of 1ABN now?
They're confusing me. Is that not supposing to be "just an 1ABT plus ANC"?
 

 
Because it's basically a wireless version of MDR-100AAP
 
The overall specs are still below the MDR-1ABT

 

[Giogio]

   
Because it's basically a wireless version of MDR-100AAP
 
The overall specs are still below the MDR-1ABT

Hmmm, I wonder why didn't they consider an ANC version of the 1ABT.
Maybe they did not manage to give the same sound to all modes (wired and wireless each with or without ANC).
Or maybe they want to wait till the prices of the 1ABT will noticeably go down, to avoid creating internal competition?

 

[RadarJammer]

In my impression, the MDR100 ABN is aimed pricewise against the Backbeat Pro. Somewhat pricier, but with better looks.
Plantronics would be well advised to improve the looks to make it street wearable, while keeping the internals.

 

[Giogio]

Hmmm, given the colours I would say they try to be a better Beats (not a difficult task to achieve, soundweise, but somehow difficult marketweise. Which is the proof of the effectiveness of the marketing strategy of"if you have nothing to say, say it loud", a practice where Beats excels).
 
Anyway, it seems interesting. Let's see.
 
Keep us updated with the new BT Headphones on CES

 

[1wyseman]

Hi Giogio and all...
 
I thought I'd come and lurk around here for awhile. All is quiet on the FiiO X7 thread--waiting for FW updates and Amplifier Modules.
 
You helped me a lot with my decision to get my Philips Fidelio M2BT's last winter. (We had a lengthy conversation in the Amazon comments under your M2BT review (Andy). I love them so much that after inheriting some money from a long lost aunt (I kid you not!), I bought a second pair, just because I wanted to be sure to have them for a long time.
 
And then I bought 8 more headphones.

 OCD? Hoarder? No, my new hobby, I guess. All of the purchases were influenced by comments and reviews in this thread and your Amazon reviews (among others), so thank you!
 
I'd like to rank them in order of my preference, but I need more time with each of them and they all have different attributes for different purposes. The Fidelios rank above and beyond all the rest; your concerns about them were not things I had to be concerned with. I'll just list them in their current order of my preference and I'll try to join in with more intelligent comments as time goes by. I'm an audiophile wanna be without the vocabulary or confidence.
 
1. Philips Fidelio M2BT
2. Sennheiser Momentum 2 M2AEBT (newest incarnation)
3. B&W P5 Wireless (Overall general-purpose wow!)
4. B&O BeoPlay H8 (I would be afraid of being mugged for these in public.)
5. Audio Technica ATH WS99BT (HATE the volume controls, Brainwavs Hybrid earpads--velour+leather)
6. Harmon Kardon BT Premium (I think I bought the very last factory sealed/boxed pair in existence.)
7. Definitive Technology Symphony 1 (Wearing now streaming Spotify through FiiO X7, RHODES "Run"--wonderful!)
8. Plantronics BackBeat Pro (Ugly, hiding beautiful swan underneath...or something like that. Make that black swan.
9. Denon AHGC20 (I want to like these more...hoping they'll grow on me. They confuse me somehow.)
 
Keep up the great work everyone!

 

[Snafflington]

Long time listener, first time caller. 
 
I ordered the Backbeat Senses on offer from Amazon UK as well. Hopefully arrive next week. I had originally just gone for the Jabra Moves, which i have been testing over the weekend, but thought it would be rude not to test the Senses while they were the same price at 59.99
 
Hopefully one of these will be able to fill my requirement for lightweight portable pair of BT headphones sub-£60-£70. I got to admit, I have been really impressed with the Moves so far. Great sound quality, comfortable, controls work well and bluetooth range is fine. Battery life at 8 hours seems a bit limited, but the Senses are really going to have to impress to make me choose them over the Moves.
 
One thing I am going to be interested with the Senses, is there are a lot of reviews on Amazon that noise conduction through the headphones themselves is an issue when walking/moving. Curious if this is people being over-senstive, like a lot of Amazon reviewers seem to be, or if it's a genuine issue.

 

[Giogio]

Hello Andy, nice to see you here.
Also because as you may have read, I do not have access to my Amazon reviews anymore, and I cannot answer to comments there.
 
Well, you became a BT Headphones collector! This thread is powerfully dangerous
 
It would be cool if you could add a short description of the most remarkable characteristics of each of those headphones, and I mean, not the tech specs but what you have found particularly good or bad in them.
Specially the B&W P5 which as far as I know nobody described yet (not here) and the ATH, so that people have other perspectives on my N°1, for the sake of objectivity.
 
I remember you liking bass.
In this case you have definitely chosen the wrong earpads for your ATH.
The hybrid (just testing) are not much different than the all-velour in the way they affect the sound, absorbing some mids and some bass. They took power and beauty away from the ATH!
You should try the angled leatherette (look for them in MP4Nation), which respects more the original sound of the ATH, their warmth, their impact, their bass, just increasing some bass (which we both like) and soundstage. They sound imo better than the normal (flat, not angled) leatherette which I've used till now.
Trust me, give them a try.
They are also the most comfortable for people with protruding ears, although people with large ears may feel constricted by their rather oval opening (which is quite wider vertically than horizontally), in which case the flat leatherette may offer more space horizontally.
 
And if you have Windows, you should definitely use Foobar2000 and search online for their "Real Bass Exciter" plugin. You will not believe what it can do to the bass. One does not get that bass with just EQ.
 
Cheers!

 

[Giogio]

  Long time listener, first time caller. 
 
I ordered the Backbeat Senses on offer from Amazon UK as well. Hopefully arrive next week. I had originally just gone for the Jabra Moves, which i have been testing over the weekend, but thought it would be rude not to test the Senses while they were the same price at 59.99
 
Hopefully one of these will be able to fill my requirement for lightweight portable pair of BT headphones.
 
One thing I am going to be interested with the Senses, is there are a lot of reviews on Amazon that noise conduction through the headphones themselves is an issue when walking/moving. Curious if this is people being over-senstive, like a lot of Amazon reviewers seem to be, or if it's a genuine issue.

We are curious too. They are two headphones I did not try. I am still working on getting one Sense to test, and I have never been much interested in the Move as they are supposedly a step down of the Revo, which did not impress me so much (apart for their nice bass and the warmth). But I am starting wishing to test them, as so many people seems to think they are a very valid budget headphone, costing less than the Revo and sounding very similar. And I miss good budget headphones in my list.
 
Please let us know how they compare!
EDIT: oh, and, almost forgotten, welcome!

 

[Snafflington]

 
We are curious too. They are two headphones I did not try. I am still working on getting one Sense to test, and I have never been much interested in the Move as they are supposedly a step down of the Revo, which did not impress me so much (apart for their nice bass and the warmth). But I am starting wishing to test them, as so many people seems to think they are a very valid budget headphone, costing less than the Revo and sounding very similar. And I miss good budget headphones in my list.
 
Please let us know how they compare!
EDIT: oh, and, almost forgotten, welcome!

 
Thanks for the welcome
 
The Moves pleasantly surprised me, as I was not expecting too much. Apparently they may have an issue with the ear pads splitting, but the rest of the headphones have a nice robust and solid feel about them despite only being 150g. I also had the Revos as well, but they didn't really get a testing audio-wise, as they just didn't fit my head very well so were sent back straightaway.
 
I should add my previous portables were a set of the August EP650, which were ok, but nowhere near the God like status the Amazon reviews would have you believe. I sometimes wonder how many of those glowing reviews are because they were supplied with free review units.
 
Anyway, it's come down to the Moves and the Senses. On paper, they have quite similar specs from a technical point. With noticeable differences being the Senses have a 32mm driver vs the 40mm driver of the Moves. The Senses have AptX, but being an Apple user, this is redundant as it's not implemented on their devices, which is a shame. I honestly think the Moves look better, as Plantronics never seem to fully get away from their roots in the work/office sector. The Backbeat Pros had the same problem I thought....great headphones though.
 
I'll end by saying it annoys me that the US market get an SE version of the Senses which have a nanotech coating, for not much extra, which makes them waterproof. Given the weather we are currently having in the UK, that would have been quite handy!

 

[Snafflington]

I did write a reply thanking you for the welcome, but I popped a link in there, so think it's been put on hold till a mod reviews it. Sure it will appear at some point

 

[1wyseman]

  Hello Andy, nice to see you here.
Also because as you may have read, I do not have access to my Amazon reviews anymore, and I cannot answer to comments there.
 
Well, you became a BT Headphones collector! This thread is powerfully dangerous
 
It would be cool if you could add a short description of the most remarkable characteristics of each of those headphones, and I mean, not the tech specs but what you have found particularly good or bad in them.
Specially the B&W P5 which as far as I know nobody described yet (not here) and the ATH, so that people have other perspectives on my N°1, for the sake of objectivity.
 
I remember you liking bass.
In this case you have definitely chosen the wrong earpads for your ATH.
The hybrid (just testing) are not much different than the all-velour in the way they affect the sound, absorbing some mids and some bass. They took power and beauty away from the ATH!
You should try the angled leatherette (look for them in MP4Nation), which respects more the original sound of the ATH, their warmth, their impact, their bass, just increasing some bass (which we both like) and soundstage. They sound imo better than the normal (flat, not angled) leatherette which I've used till now.
Trust me, give them a try.
They are also the most comfortable for people with protruding ears, although people with large ears may feel constricted by their rather oval opening (which is quite wider vertically than horizontally), in which case the flat leatherette may offer more space horizontally.
 
And if you have Windows, you should definitely use Foobar2000 and search online for their "Real Bass Exciter" plugin. You will not believe what it can do to the bass. One does not get that bass with just EQ.
 
Cheers!

 
Yes, I read about your Amazon woes, but I don't get it because the reviews are still there, including your profile page (new format). Oh, you mean you can't access them...never mind.
 
I'll write something about each of the headphones as I rotate through them every other day or so. I'll get the B&W P5's out of the stable next and try to come up with smart things to say. I just put the Def Tech Symphony 1's away this morning and now have on the BackBeat Pros. Very pleasing, restful sound with maybe some gauze or Vaseline over the sound "lens". I can easily EQ more brightness into them, but I'm now on Spotify and their EQ is limited. But, like I said, very easy on the ears especially in the background while typing.
 
Yes, I like me some bass as you recalled, but I'm more into the acoustic deep rumble of a big French pipe organ or synthesized FX bass that pulls you down into sub-sonic oblivion. (Can you say Fidelio M2BT?) Rammstein bass. Bosendorfer bass. Not so much Dubstep bass--although you turned me on to that and I have actually been studying up on it.

 I do use Nils Hoffmann's "Balloons" (Club Mix) to test headphones for bass.  (It's gotta be the Club Mix--only available on YouTube.) But you should also try "Apparition de l'Église éternelle" by Olivier Messiaen.  The fact that I am 64 ("will you still need me, will you still feed me...") makes a difference, too. Things will change for you too, my little pretty!
 
 
I don't mess with EQ when streaming/DVD-ing Netflix movies or TV show marathons. However, for my music listening, both the FiiO X5 and X7 have very nice EQ's and I tweak them all the time--too much, actually. And now that my X7 can run my old home stereo through a Bluetooth DAC relay, I can use the stereo's EQ in conjunction with the X7's. I really can hear that the ATH's are very fine instruments with tremendous volume layering, build and control. They could easily move up on the list. The dang buttons are a real pain, though. And I don't have fat fingers or anything, just not very good at reading braille.
 
I've had these BackBeat Pros on for hours now with absolutely no fatigue--and they're comfortable, too! Speaking of bass... Now playing:  HAEVN "Finding Out More".
 
The velour on the hybrids only touches your skin, sooo...well, I'll take your word for it. I will get the angled earpads. You do mean Brainwavs correct? I need to pick up a couple of David Bowie CD's, too, (strangely lacking in my 134GB of music--90% Classical) so I can make the free shipping quota from Amazon...

 

[1wyseman]

Oops! I just realized that I have the Spotify EQ turned on to "user defined FX Booster" (running on my FiiO X7) while listening to the BackBeat Pros. I turned if off and everything cleared right up--no fog, bright as can be! Sounds even better, but I'm a failure as an audio/headphone analyst...not realizing where my baseline is, so to speak.

 

[Giogio]

  Yes, I like me some bass as you recalled, but I'm more into the acoustic deep rumble of a big French pipe organ or synthesized FX bass that pulls you down into sub-sonic oblivion. (Can you say Fidelio M2BT?) Rammstein bass. Bosendorfer bass. Not so much Dubstep bass--although you turned me on to that and I have actually been studying up on it.

 I do use Nils Hoffmann's "Balloons" (Club Mix) to test headphones for bass.  (It's gotta be the Club Mix--only available on YouTube.) But you should also try "Apparition de l'Église éternelle" by Olivier Messiaen.  The fact that I am 64 ("will you still need me, will you still feed me...") makes a difference, too. Things will change for you too, my little pretty!
 
 
The velour on the hybrids only touches your skin, sooo...well, I'll take your word for it. I will get the angled earpads. You do mean Brainwavs correct?

sub sonic oblivion sounds good to me.
what do you mean about the Fidelio? I did not understand.
When I talk of Dubstep, it is just to make a contrast with the cleanness of Classical. Dubstep is dirty.
But it is not the music with more bass power. It is just a special kind of bass, and the headphones must be really good to make it come out well. Otherwise it sounds weak, or distorted, or dark and muddy. Dubstep is viscerally powerful with the good equipment, and horribly banal with the wrong one. That's why I use it in my tests.
I do not listen much dubstep anyway. I like German Techno much better. And there the bass is more forward and you cannot eq that much.
I use a LOT of tracks to test bass.
Many different German Techno, like Nils Hoffmann (try Bosporus too, I use it for the more punchy kind of bass), Mollono Bass ("Sand in my hand" and "Mugatto" are the two I use more, but you should listen to The Smiling Shaman and to Deep in the Forest, which are absolutely wonderful) and others.
Then I use Beez in the Trap of Nicki Minaj, Throwback of B.o.B., Incompatible of Wiz Khalifa, Limit to your Love of James Blake, Biscuits of Fink (there are a very good punch of the kick drum, and a very cool bass which goes quite deep for being a bass guitar), Royals of Lorde, and Boa Sorte of Vanessa de Mata with Ben Harper, which is super to test the balance of bass and mids, specially if the low mids are muddy or not.
EDIT: and I use lot of Electro Swing too, a music I love much more than Dubstep and which can have some very good bass.
 
Maybe you can make me a list of your favourite tracks for the different aspects of the bass. Not only the sub-oblivion fx, I am particularly curious about those of classical music and French pipe.
I may be old enough for it, things start changing already at 40 a bit... Maybe I should go back listening more Beatles. They were my first love 30 years ago and I could not even immediately recognize your quote.
 
Yes, all HM5 are Brainwavz and are sold by MP4Nation, normally cheaper on their website than in Amazon, but prices can vary.
The hybrid is velour only on top, you are right, but the leatherette on the inside is perforated, which affects the sound much differently than the non perforated one.
The form also can affect sound, that's why the flat and the angled leatherette sound different. The angled make the front of the driver closer to your ear, which increases the impact and gives a more powerful bass without the little boominess of the flat leatherette. The mids are more clear too.
Anyway given the different form/fit, you should order both flat and angled leatherette versions and choose the one with best sound/comfort for you.
It is possible that you may have to decrease a bit the frequencies around 5-6k, which are normally responsible of sibilant highs. For some strange reason all the HM5, each in different measures, increase that a bit, which is only noticeable in some passages of some songs of some singers (end of Summertime by Morcheeba, and around 2:15 of Boa Sorte, which is another reason why I use that track so much).
And, do not forget to try Foobar2000 with the Real bass Exciter plugin!
 
 

  I did write a reply thanking you for the welcome, but I popped a link in there, so think it's been put on hold till a mod reviews it. Sure it will appear at some point

I've got the email. Yes, Plantronics has a more office style. Which is ok.
Apple supports Aptx from OSX, and in the iOS you have AAC, which is similar. Maybe find headphones with AAC then.

 

[Snafflington]

 
I've got the email. Yes, Plantronics has a more office style. Which is ok.
Apple supports Aptx from OSX, and in the iOS you have AAC, which is similar. Maybe find headphones with AAC then.

 
Yeah, I know OSX is covered for AptX. Just a shame given all of Apple's billions, they couldn't license AptX from CSR for iOS/mobile devices.
 
Anyway, will see what they sound like via SBC when they get here tomorrow